to luxurious living were not ready to be brought down to such simple
fare, and a number of these attacked Lycurgus in the market-place, and
would have stoned him to death had he not run briskly for his life. As
it was, one of his pursuers knocked out his eye. But, such was his
content at his success, that he dedicated his last eye to the gods,
building a temple to the goddess Athene of the Eye. At these public
tables black broth was the most valued dish, the elder men eating it in
preference, and leaving the meat to their younger messmates.
The houses of the Spartans were as plain as they could well be made, and
as simple in furniture as possible, while no lights were permitted at
bedtime, it being designed that every one should become accustomed to
walking boldly in the dark. This, however, was but a minor portion of
the Spartan discipline. Throughout life, from boyhood to old age, every
one was subjected to the most rigorous training. From seven years of age
the drill continued, and everyone was constantly being trained or seeing
others under training. The day was passed in public exercises and public
meals, the nights in public barracks. Married Spartans rarely saw their
wives--during the first years of marriage--and had very little to do
with their children; their whole lives were given to the state, and the
slavery of the Helots to them was not more complete than their slavery
to military discipline.
They were not only drilled in the complicated military movements which
taught a body of Spartan soldiers to act as one man, but also had
incessant gymnastic training, so as to make them active, strong, and
enduring. They were taught to bear severe pain unmoved, to endure heat
and cold, hunger and thirst, to walk barefoot on rugged ground, to wear
the same garment summer and winter, to suppress all display of feeling,
and in public to remain silent and motionless until action was called
for.
Two companies were often matched against each other, and these contests
were carried on with fury, fists and feet taking the place of arms.
Hunting in the woods and mountains was encouraged, that they might learn
to bear fatigue. The boys were kept half fed, that they might be forced
to provide for themselves by hunting or stealing. The latter was
designed to make them cunning and skilful, and if detected in the act
they were severely punished. The story is told that one boy who had
stolen a fox and hidden it under his garment, permitted the animal to
tear him open with claws and teeth, and died rather than reveal his
theft.
One might say that he would rather have been born a girl than a boy in
Sparta; but the girls were trained almost as severely as the boys. They
were forced to contend with each other in running, wrestling, and
boxing, and to go through other gymnastic exercises calculated to make
them strong and healthy. They marched in the religious processions, sung
and danced at festivals, and were present at the exercises of the
youths. Thus boys and girls were continually mingled, and the praise or
reproach of the latter did much to stimulate their brothers and friends
to the utmost exertion.
As a result of all this the Spartans became strong, vigorous, and
handsome in form and face. The beauty of their women was everywhere
celebrated. The men became unequalled for soldierly qualities, able to
bear the greatest fatigue and privation, and to march great distances in
a brief time, while on the field of battle they were taught to conquer
or to die, a display of cowardice or flight from the field being a
lifelong disgrace.
Such were the main features of the most singular set of laws any nation
ever had, the best fitted to make a nation of soldiers, and also to
prevent intellectual progress in any other direction than the single one
of war-making. Even eloquence in speech was discouraged, and a brief or
laconic manner sedulously cultivated. But while all this had its
advantages, it had its defects. The number of citizens decreased instead
of increasing. At the time of the Persian war there were eight thousand
of them. At a late date there were but seven hundred, of whom one
hundred possessed most of the land. Whether Lycurgus really divided the
land equally or not is doubtful. At any rate, in time the land fell into
a few hands, the poor increased in number, and the people steadily died
out; while the public mess, so far as the rich were concerned, became a
mere form.
But we need not deal with these late events, and must go back to the
story told of Lycurgus. It is said that when he had completed his code
of laws, he called together an assembly of the people, told them that he
was going on a journey, and asked them to swear that they would obey his
laws till he returned. This they agreed to do, the kings, the senate,
and the people all taking the oath.
Then the law-giver went to Delphi, where he offered a sacrifice to
Apollo, and asked the oracle if the laws he had made were good. The
oracle answered that they were excellent, and would bring the people the
greatest fame. This answer he had put into writing and sent to Sparta,
for he had resolved to make his oath binding for all time by never
returning. So the old man starved himself to death.
The Spartans kept their oath. For five hundred years their city
continued one of the chief cities of Greece, and their army the most
warlike and dreaded of the armies of the earth. As for Lycurgus, his
countrymen worshipped him as a god, and imputed to him all that was
noble in their institutions and excellent in their laws. But time brings
its inevitable changes, and these famous institutions in time decayed,
while the people perished from over-strict discipline or other causes
till but a small troop of Spartans remained, too weak in numbers fairly
to control the Helots of their fields.
In truth, the laws of Lycurgus were unnatural, and in the end could but
fail. They were framed to make one-sided men, and only whole men can
long succeed. Human nature will have its way, and luxury and corruption
crept into Sparta despite these laws. Nor did the Spartans prove braver
or more successful in war than the Athenians, whose whole nature was
developed, and who were alike great in literature, art, and war.
_ARISTOMENES, THE HERO OF MESSENIA._
We have told by what means the Spartans grew to be famous warriors. We
have now to tell one of the ancient stories of how they used their
warlike prowess to extend their dominions. Laconia, their country, was
situated in the southeast section of the Peloponnesus, that southern
peninsula which is attached to the remainder of Greece by the narrow
neck of land known as the Isthmus of Corinth. Their capital city was
anciently called Lacedaemon; it was later known as Sparta. In consequence
they are called in history both Spartans and Lacedaemonians.
In the early history of the Spartans they did not trouble themselves
about Northern Greece. They had enough to occupy them in the
Peloponnesus. As the Romans, in after-time, spent their early centuries
in conquering the small nations immediately around them, so did the
Spartans. And the first wars of this nation of soldiers seem to have
been with Messenia, a small country west of Laconia, and extending like
it southward into the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
There were two wars with the Messenians, both full of stories of daring
and disaster, but it is the second of these with which we are specially
concerned, that in which the hero Aristomenes won his fame. We shall
not ask our readers to believe all that is told about this ancient
champion. Much of it is very doubtful. But the war in which he took part
was historical, and the conquest of Messenia was the first great event
in Spartan history.
Now for the story itself. In the first Messenian war, which was fought
more than seven hundred years B.C., the leader of the Messenians was
named Aristodemus. A quarrel had arisen between the two nations during
some sacrifices on their border lands. The Spartans had laid a snare for
their neighbors by dressing some youths as maidens and arming them with
daggers. They attacked the Messenians, but were defeated, and the
Spartan king was slain.
In the war that ensued the Messenians in time found themselves in severe
straits, and followed the plan that seems to have been common throughout
Grecian history. They sent to Delphi to ask aid and advice from the
oracle of Apollo. And the oracle gave them one of its often cruel and
always uncertain answers; saying that if they would be successful a
virgin of the house of AEpytus must die for her country. To fulfil this
cruel behest Aristodemus, who was of that ancient house, killed his
daughter with his own hand,--much as Agamemnon had sacrificed his
daughter before sailing for Troy.
Aristodemus afterwards became king, and had a stirring and tragic
history, which was full of portents and prodigies. Thus an old blind
prophet suddenly recovered his sight,--which the Messenians looked upon
to mean something, though it is not clear what. A statue of Artemis (or
Diana) let fall its brazen shield; which meant something more,--probably
that the fastenings had given way; but the ancients looked on it as a
portent. Then the ghost of his murdered daughter appeared to
Aristodemus, pointed to her wounded side, stripped off his armor, placed
on his head a crown of gold and on his body a white robe,--a sign of
death. So, as it seemed evident that he had mistaken the oracle, and
killed his daughter without saving his country, he did the only thing
that remained for him: he went to her grave and killed himself. And with
this tragedy ends all we need to tell about the first champion of
Messenia.
The war ended in the conquest of Messenia by the Spartans. The conquered
people were very harshly treated by the conquerors, being forced to pay
as tribute half the produce of their fields, and to humble themselves
before their haughty masters. As a result, about fifty years afterwards,
they broke out into rebellion, and a second Messenian war began.
This war lasted for many years, the Messenians being led by a valiant
hero named Aristomenes, who performed startling exploits and made
marvellous escapes. Three great battles took place, with various results
and three times Aristomenes made a remarkable sacrifice to the king of
the gods. This was called the Hekatomphonia, and could only be offered
by one who had slain, with his own hands, one hundred enemies in battle.
But great battles were not all. There were years of guerilla warfare.
At the head of a band of brave followers Aristomenes made his way more
than once to the very heart of Laconia, surprised two of its cities, and
on one occasion ventured into Sparta itself by night. Here he boldly
entered the temple of Athene of the Brazen House and hung up his shield
there as a mark of defiance to his enemies, placing on it an inscription
which said that Aristomenes presented it as an offering from Spartan
spoil.
The Messenian maidens crowned their hero with garlands, and danced
around him, singing a war strain in honor of his victories over his
foes. Yet he found the Spartans vigorous and persistent enemies, and in
spite of all his victories was forced at length to take refuge in the
mountain fastnesses, where he held out against his foes for eleven
years.
We do not know all the adventures of this famous champion, but are told
that he was taken prisoner three times by his enemies. Twice he made
marvellous escapes while they were conveying him to Sparta. On the third
occasion he was less fortunate. His foes bore him in triumph to their
capital city, and here he was condemned to be cast from Mount Taygetus
into the Keadas, a deep rock cavity into which they flung their
criminals.
Fifty Messenian prisoners suffered the same fate and were all killed;
but the gods, so we are told, came to their leader's aid. The legend
says that an eagle took Aristomenes on its outspread wings, and landed
him safely in the bottom of the pit. More likely the bodies of the
former victims broke his fall. Seeing no possible way out from the deep
cavity, he wrapped himself in his cloak, and resigned himself to die.
But, while thus lying, he saw a fox prowling among the dead bodies, and
questioned himself how it had found its way into the pit. When it came
near him he grasped its tail, defending himself from its bites by means
of his cloak. Holding fast, he followed the fox to the aperture by which
it had entered, enlarged it so that he could creep out, and soon
appeared alive again in the field, to the surprise of his friends and
the consternation of his foes.
Being seized again by some Cretan bowmen, he was rescued by a maiden,
who dreamed that wolves had brought into the city a chained lion, bereft
of its claws, and that she had given it claws and set it free. When she
saw Aristomenes among his captors, she believed that her dream had come
true, and that the gods desired her to set him free. This she did by
making his captors drunk, and giving him a dagger with which he cut his
bonds. The indiscreet bowmen were killed by the warrior, while the
escaped hero rewarded the maiden by making her the wife of his son.
But Messenia was doomed by the gods, and no man could avert its fate.
The oracle of Delphi declared that if the he-goat (Tragos) should drink
the waters of the Neda, the god could no longer defend that fated
country. And now a fig-tree sprang up on the banks of the Neda, and,
instead of spreading its branches aloft, let them droop till they
touched the waters of the stream. This a seer announced as the
fulfillment of the oracle, for in the Messenian language the fig-tree
was called _Tragos_.
Aristomenes now, discouraged by the decree of the gods, and finding
himself surrounded, through treachery, by his enemies in his mountain
stronghold, decided to give up the hopeless struggle. He broke fiercely
through the ranks of his assailants with his sons and followers, and
left his country to the doom which the gods had decreed.
The end of his career, like its earlier events, was, according to the
legend, under the control of the deities. Damagetes, the king of the
island of Rhodes, had been told by an oracle that he must marry the
bravest of the Hellenes (or Greeks). Believing that Aristomenes had the
best claim to this proud title, he asked him for the hand of his
daughter in marriage, and offered him a home in his island realm.
Aristomenes consented, and spent the remainder of his days in Rhodes.
From his daughter descended the illustrious family of the Diagoridae.
This romantic story of the far past resembles those of King Alfred of
England, of Wallace and Bruce of Scotland, and of other heroes who have
defended their countries single-handed against a powerful foe. But we
are not done with it yet. There is another singular and interesting
episode to be told,--a legend, no doubt, but one which has almost passed
into history.
The story goes that the Spartans, losing heart at the success of the
Messenians in the early years of the war, took the usual method then
adopted, and sent to the oracle at Delphi for advice. The oracle told
them to apply to Athens for a leader. They did so, sending an embassy to
that city; and in response to the oracle the Athenians sent them a lame
schoolmaster named Tyrtaeus. They did not dare to resist the command of
the god, but they had no desire to render any actual aid to the
Spartans.
However, Apollo seems to have been wiser than the Athenians. The lame
schoolmaster was an able poet as well, and on reaching Sparta he
composed a series of war-songs which so inspirited the army that they
marched away to victory. Tyrtaeus was probably not only an able poet;
very likely he also gave the Spartans good advice in the conduct of the
war, and though he did not lead their armies, he animated them by his
songs and aided them with his advice until victory followed their career
of defeat.
For many years afterwards the war-songs of Tyrtaeus remained highly
popular at Sparta, and some of them have come down to our own days. As
for the actual history of this war, most of what we know seems to have
been written by Tyrtaeus, who was thus not only the poet but the
historian of the Messenian wars.
_SOLON, THE LAW-GIVER OF ATHENS._
We have told how Sparta came to have an aristocratic government, under
the laws of Lycurgus. We have now to tell how Athens came to have a
democratic government, under the laws of Solon. These formed the types
of government for later Greece, some of whose nations became
aristocracies, following the example of Sparta; others became
democracies, and formed their governments on the model of that of
Athens.
As before Lycurgus the Spartan commonwealth was largely without law, so
was Athens before Solon. In those days the people of Attica--of which
Athens was the capital city--were divided into three factions,--the
rich, the middle class, and the poor. As for the poor, they were in a
condition of misery, being loaded down with debt, and many of them in a
state of slavery to the rich, who owned nearly all the land.
At that period what law existed was very severe against debtors. The
debtor became the slave of his creditor, and was held in this state
until he could pay his debt, either in money or in labor. And not only
he, but his younger sons and his unmarried daughters and sisters, were
reduced to slavery. Through the action of this severe law many of the
poor of Attica were owned as slaves, many had been sold as slaves, some
had kept their freedom only by selling their own children, and some had
fled from the country to escape slavery. And this, too, had arisen in
many cases through injustice in the courts and corruption of the judges.
In the time of Solon the misery and oppression from these laws became so
great that there was a general mutiny of the poor against the rich. They
refused to submit to the unjust enactments of their rulers, and the
state fell into such frightful disorder that the governing class, no
longer able to control the people, were obliged to call Solon to their
aid.
Solon did not belong to the rich men of Athens, though he was of noble
birth, and, like so many of the older Greeks, traced his family line
back to the gods. Neptune, the ocean deity, was fabled to be his far-off
ancestor. He was born about 638 B.C. His father had spent most of his
money, largely in kind deeds to others, and the son found himself
obliged to become a merchant. In this pursuit he travelled in many parts
of Greece and Asia, and in his journeys paid more heed to the gaining of
knowledge than of money, so that when he came back his mind was fuller
than his purse. Men who seek wisdom rarely succeed in gaining much
money, but Solon's story goes to show that wisdom is far the better of
the two, and that a rich mind is of more value than a rich purse. When
he returned to Attica he gained such fame as a poet and a man of
learning and wisdom that he has ever since been classed as one of the
Seven Wise Men of Greece.
Of these wise men the following story is told. Some fishermen of Cos
cast their net into the sea, and brought up in its meshes a golden
tripod, which the renowned Helen had thrown into the sea during her
return from Troy. A dispute arose as to whom the tripod should belong
to. Several cities were ready to go to war about it. To prevent
bloodshed the oracle of Apollo was applied to, and answered that it
should be sent to the wisest man that could be found.
It was at first sent to Thales of Miletus, a man famous for wisdom. But
he decided that Bias of Priene was wiser than he, and sent it to him.
And thus it went the round of the seven wise men,--Solon among them, so
we are told,--and finally came back to Thales. He refused to keep it,
and placed it in the temple of Apollo at Thebes.
An evidence alike of Solon's wisdom, shrewdness, and political skill
arose in the war for the island of Salamis, which adjoined the two
states of Megara and Attica, and for whose possession they were at war.
After the Athenians had been at great loss of men and money in this
conflict, Megara gained the island, and the people of Athens became so
disgusted with the whole affair that a law was passed declaring that any
man who spoke or wrote again about the subject should be put to death.
This Solon held to be a stain on the honor of Athens. He did not care to
lose his life by breaking the law, but was not content that his country
should rest under the stigma of defeat, and should yield so valuable a
prize. He accordingly had it given out that he had gone mad; and in
pretended insanity he rushed into the public square, mounted the
herald's stone, and repeated a poem he had composed for the occasion,
recalling vividly to the people the disgrace of their late defeat. His
stirring appeal so wrought upon their feelings that the law was
repealed, war was declared, and Solon was placed in command of the army.
Megara sent out a ship to watch the proceedings, but this was seized by
Solon's fleet and manned by part of his force. The remainder of his men
were landed and marched towards the city of Salamis, on which they made
an assault. While this was going on, Solon sailed up with the ship he
had captured. The Megarians, thinking it to be their own ship, permitted
it to enter the port, and the city was taken by surprise. Salamis, thus
won, continued to belong to Athens till those late days when Philip of
Macedon conquered Greece.
To Solon, now acknowledged to be the wisest and most famous of the
Athenians, the tyrants who had long misruled Athens turned, when they
found the people in rebellion against their authority. In the year 594
B.C. he was chosen archon, or ruler of the state, and was given full
power to take such measures as were needed to put an end to the
disorders. Probably these autocrats supposed that he would help them to
continue in power; but, if so, they did not know the man with whom they
had to deal.
Solon might easily have made himself a despot, if he had chosen,--all
the states of Greece being then under the rule of despots or of
tyrannical aristocrats. But he was too honest and too wise for this. He
set himself earnestly to overcome the difficulties which lay before him.
And he did this with a radical hand. In truth, the people were in no
mood for any but radical measures.
The enslaved debtors were at once set free. All contracts in which the
person or the land of the debtor had been given as security were
cancelled. No future contract under which a citizen could be enslaved or
imprisoned for debt was permitted. All past claims against the land of
Attica were cancelled, and the mortgage pillars removed. (These pillars
were set up at the boundaries of the land, and had the lender's name and
the amount of the debt cut into the stone.)
But as many of the creditors were themselves in debt to richer men, and
as Solon's laws left them poor, he adopted a measure for their relief.
This was to lower the value of the money of the state. The old silver
drachmas were replaced by new drachmas, of which seventy-three equalled
one hundred of the old. Debtors were thus able to pay their debts at a
discount of twenty-seven per cent., and the great loss fell on the rich;
and justly so, for most of them had gained their wealth through
dishonesty and oppression. Lastly, Solon made full citizens of all from
whom political rights had been taken, except those who had been
condemned for murder or treason.
This was a bold measure. And, like such bold measures generally, it did
injustice to many. But the evil was temporary, the good permanent. It
put an end to much injustice, and no such condition as had prevailed
ever again arose in Athens. The government of the aristocracy came to an
end under Solon's laws. From that time forward Athens grew more and more
a government of the people.
The old assembly of the people existed then, but all its power had been
taken from it. Solon gave back to it the right of voting and of passing
laws. But he established a council of four hundred men, elected annually
by the people, whose duty it was to consider the business upon which the
assembly was to act. And the assembly could only deal with business that
was brought before it by this council.